Imia

There are only three ways that our differences with Turkey can be resolved: With a bilateral negotiation and agreement, through the arbitration of an international court or in a military conflict. There is no other way. Each of these three scenarios involves very high risks, both political and national.

Greece was very fortunate because it had a generation of Greek-American "giants" by its side upon whom it could rely whenever it faced difficulties. This was the generation that exerted immense pressure on Henry Kissinger after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and spent its political and economic capital to help Greece. 

Turkey speaks of “unilateral actions” that create de facto situations on islands in the Aegean where -according to them- their “sovereignty has not been determined”

The channels of communication with Ankara are working, which is why tension was avoided at the most recent incident to take place near the uninhabited Imia islets in the southeastern Aegean, Greece's minister of maritime affairs and island policy, Christos Stylianides, tells Kathimerini.

January 31, 1996. The peak of the Imia crisis leads to the crash of the Agusta Bell PN21 helicopter and the death of three Greek officers. Twenty-eight years later, Kathimerini attempts to shed light on the unknown background of the crisis and the causes that brought the two countries to the brink of war.

Police have banned all public rallies and protest marches in a part of central Athens on Saturday and Sunday, due to fears of clashes at an event planned by neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to mark the anniversary of the 1996 Imia crisis, when Greece and Turkey almost went to war over the uninhabited islet.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis paid tribute on Wednesday to the three Greek Navy officers who lost their lives during the Imia crisis, which brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war 28 years ago.

Two police special guards were arrested on Monday for physically assaulting a man taking part in a far-right demonstration on Sunday in the Athens suburb of Ambelokipi later that night.

The two officers were identified in a video doing the rounds on the internet.

Straight on the heels of the recent barrage of Turkish violations of Greek airspace, with flights over large, inhabited Aegean islands such as Rhodes and Kalymnos and the Imia rock islets (that led the two countries to the brink of war in 1996), and two strongly-worded Greek foreign ministry demarches to Ankara's ambassador to Athens, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar unleashed yet another a

By George Gilson